HIGHER ABILITY LEVEL STUDENTS

Do higher ability level students get better marks in speed track classes or mixed ability classes?



Table of Contents

Introduction3

Data Analysis5

Descriptive statistics5

ANOVA12

Hypothesis testing13

Regression16

Correlation19

Regressions by propensity quartile20

Discussion21

Conclusion28

References30

Do higher ability level students get better marks in speed track classes or mixed ability classes?

Introduction

One method of identifying high differentiating in speed track classes or mixed ability classes classrooms involves asking students to describe their teacher's likely interactions with hypothetical high and low ability students (Weinstein et al., 1987). In those classrooms in which students perceive more differentiating teacher treatment to high and low ability students, teacher expectancy effects are larger and students' self-perceptions more closely match those of the teacher ([Brattesani et al., 1984] and [Weinstein et al., 1987]).

One might question the age at which higher ability level students are capable of reporting accurately about teacher practices in speed track classes or mixed ability classes classroom or about their own or other students' abilities. When interviewed individually with items that are concretely worded, higher ability level students as young as 4 years of age provide reliable and meaningful information about teachers' behaviors toward them (Montzicopoulos & Neuharth-Pritchett, 2003). Higher ability level students as young as first grade are aware of teacher differential behavior to high and low ability students (Weinstein et al., 1987), and their rankings of classmates' relative abilities align with teacher ratings ([Stipek, 1981] and [Stipek and Tannatt, 1984]). Weinstein et al. (1987) investigated developmental shifts between first and fifth grade in students' awareness of differential teacher behavior.

Although first graders were as accurate as third and fifth graders in detecting patterns of differential teacher behavior to high and low achieving students, when they described their own interactions with the teacher, both first and third graders were less likely than fifth graders so see differences in their own treatment as a function of teacher expectations, or to be as accurate about the relative level of their teachers' expectations for them. The researchers interpreted this finding to mean that first graders may apply knowledge of differential teacher behavior to others before they apply this knowledge to themselves.

Generally, students in high differentiating classrooms report lower self perceptions of cognitive ability ([Dweck and Leggett, 1988], [Elliott and Dweck, 1988], [Mac Iver, 1988], [Lüdtke et al., 2005] and [Stipek and Daniels, 1988]). However, most of this research has been conducted with middle childhood or older higher ability level students . A developmental shift in the application of awareness of differential teacher practices to one's self perceptions of ability suggests that the differences in teacher differentiating practices may not affect students' perceived cognitive competence in the early grades.

Research emanating from goal orientation theory ([Dweck and Leggett, 1988], [Nicholls, 1984], [Urdan and Midgley, 2003] and [Urdan et al., 1998]) has documented associations between teacher differentiating practices and students' adoption of either performance or mastery goals for achievement.

Students who adopt a performance goal orientation (sometimes referred to as an ability goal orientation) are motivated to maintain a sense of self-worth through performing well ([Ames, 1992] and ...